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NUI symposium on foreign language learning on 30th November 2018 in University College CorkPlease see here the very interesting programme for the day. If you want to take part, please email Patricia Maguire PMaguire@nui.ie

The GSAI invites abstracts to its conference Conflict, Crisis and Culture, on 16-17th November 2018 at University College Dublin. ​Conflict, Crisis and CultureSignificant anniversaries relating to conflicts and crises in the German-speaking lands are taking place in 2018, and often they are situated in a transnational framework: 170 years have passed since the Revolutions of 1848; 100 years since the end of the First World War; 50 years since the protests of the ‘68 movement; 10 since the 2008 financial crisis; and, following the so-called Zirkeltag on the 5th February 2018, the Berlin Wall has now been down for longer than it was standing. Contemporary conflicts and crises, including the so-called crisis in contemporary Germanistik, the rise of AfD/ Pegida, the refugee crisis, have also had an impact upon the German language, German culture as well as the teaching of German.

Modern Humanities Research Association Centenary Lecture 2018 will be presented by Michael Cronin who is Chair of French (1776) and Director of the Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, Trinity College Dublin.

Abstract: Rutger Bregman in his Utopia for Realists and how we can get there (2017) argues for the urgent need for utopian thinking. In the stalled logjam of the present, ‘what we need are alternative horizons that spark the imagination. and I do mean horizons in the plural; conflicting utopias are the lifeblood of democracy, after all’ (20-21). For Bregman utopianism is about alternatives not blueprints. It is not about how life should be lived but about the ways in which it might be lived. What is more, in everything from ending poverty to the future of work, it is often the supposedly unrealistic utopian solutions that prove to be the most realistic. What I wish to argue is that we need to consider modern languages from the standpoint of this realist utopianism. In other words, we need to think about the role of modern languages and the teaching and learning of modern languages in the context of the major problems which are facing contemporary society. More particularly, we need to reflect on the ways in which modern languages can in very concrete ways help us to develop those ‘alternative horizons’ that are so vital to the resilience of democratic societies. In this lecture we will be focusing on three dimensions to the practice of modern languages, namely, the limits to digital cosmopolitanism, post-identitarian politics and the reinvention of (eco)self. In the areas of technology, migration and ecology, it will be argued that modern languages and literatures are central to what Bertrand Russell called for when he claimed, ‘It is not a finished Utopia we ought to desire but a world where imagination and hope are alive and active’.